Until the early Republican era, Western churches gradually entered the city, and the former site of Hongzhi Academy was bought by a man who had returned from studying abroad.
He not only funded the construction of a church not far away, but also built a private school for girls.
With the aim of inspiring and helping children affected by war, the school recruited many women with aspirations and successfully established the school.
The following entire chapter is a eulogy to the school's various activities.
Her slender fingertips paused on the last page, where there were obvious signs of tearing. She said that such a thick cover couldn't have such thin content.
The stories that books want to tell are far more than this, and it is likely that the fate of girls' schools in times of turmoil will not be much better than that of their predecessors.
After all, the whole school is full of ghosts who spend their days killing 'outsiders' for fun. If you say they don't harbor resentment, even a little kid like her wouldn't believe it.
But she could no longer find the truth in this book.
Could it be that she needs to find the missing pages?
The young girl dared not delay. Every room held hidden dangers, and she was no exception. She spent a few minutes flipping through the book and then hurried to find clues.
Cheng Shuang closed the hardcover book, got up and turned off the desk lamp. Just as she was about to put the hardcover book back on the bookshelf, she stopped and her peach blossom eyes immediately moved to the desk lamp.
This lamp is neither the banker's desk lamp with a green lampshade that was popular in the early Republic of China, nor the style with intricate patterns favored by wealthy women. Instead, it is a wall-mounted kerosene lamp.
Perhaps because no one had cleaned it for a long time, the lampshade was fogged up.
Cheng Shuang leaned closer and could still feel the warmth emanating from the glass cover; it wasn't hot to the touch, but it was very comforting.
Its light bulb is made of a warm yellow tungsten filament that the little girl has never seen before. The warm yellow light is relaxing and allows her to quickly get into a reading environment.
The lamp's illumination range is not large. The lamp base can be lifted up, but it cannot be moved from the desktop it is on; at most, it can be moved from one edge of the desk to the other.
The little girl took out a wet wipe from the compartment, intending to clean the lampshade, but the wipe lingered on the edge of the lampshade for a long time.
She simply put the tissue away, turned to the first page, held the hard cover close to the lampshade, and then turned on the rotary switch.
In the brief moment the dim yellow light appeared, Cheng Shuang noticed a few lines of small print visible through the hardcover, different from the large title on the cover. Unfortunately, the light was too dim, and the print was blurry and illegible.
Cheng Shuang perked up and brought the cover close to the lampshade, but she pressed it too close, and a burning smell immediately emanated from one corner of the book…
The little girl was so frightened that she immediately moved the book away.
My first reaction was, "How is that possible?"
She touched the outside of the lampshade again; it was a little hot, but not hot enough to make the book smell like it was being baked.
Is that a problem with the book?
Cheng Shuang took her phone out of the storage compartment, switched it to the flashlight function, and shone it on the cover.
The flashlight was much brighter than the desk lamp, but there was no display on the cover or inside.
There must be some secret hidden inside the thick hard cover, which is why the words are visible when the light shines on them.
Are we going to burn the book?
No, it won't happen!
Public libraries have a rule against damaging books, and school libraries should be no exception.
The little girl scratched her head in distress, looked around for anything she could use, blinked her eyes, and finally fixed her gaze on the dashboard mirror by the door.
She ran over quickly and tried to turn the doorknob. Although she managed to move the handle, a gust of foul wind wafted through the crack in the door, making the girl's hair stand on end. She pushed the door shut again and locked it.
Listening closely, she could hear an indescribable heavy breathing coming from outside the door, like some enormous beast staring intently at her through the door.
Cheng Shuang checked the door to make sure she had locked it before letting out a sigh of relief and turning to the dashboard mirror.
Perhaps it's a characteristic of girls' schools, but there's a small dressing mirror right at the entrance of each classroom, and even the cafeteria has one.
The instrument panel, covered in rust, was firmly attached to the wall and could not be removed or moved. Looking through it at the library behind it, one had the illusion that the light had dimmed.
She blinked and looked again. Suddenly, a pair of crimson beast eyes appeared on the mirror, as if staring at her face to face.
The little girl immediately took a few steps back, patted her chest, and tried to calm her frightened heart.
It seems the mirror cannot be moved, and its very existence may even hint at some kind of danger.
Cheng Shuang's intuition pounded in her chest, compelling the young girl to eagerly move away from the mirror and, clutching her books, check the library once more.
The librarian's desk was in a dark corner, so dark that it was easy to overlook it because the lights in that area were broken.
Cheng Shuang didn't rush to use her bright flashlight to illuminate the area. Instead, she used the faint light from other areas to find the table lamp on the counter, turned it on, and revealed an empty tabletop.
The counter is higher than the desks used by students for borrowing books, and the chairs are also high chairs, probably so that the students can be seen better while reading. Therefore, this dark corner is the place with the best view.
Cheng Shuang observed the library again from the perspective of an administrator.
Libraries possess a wealth of intellectual nourishment, yet in another sense, they are also quite impoverished.
To protect the fragile books, there were really no extra items here, except for a rag and a broom in the cabinet under the librarian's desk. There was also a drawer under the cabinet, but it was locked.
She tried it again, but it was locked.
With no other options, Cheng Shuang lowered her head and returned to her desk. After sitting down, she began rummaging through the clutter in the storage compartment. She was not familiar with the routines of escape rooms, but having played murder mystery games before, she naturally understood that escape rooms also required finding usable clues step by step, combining them, and solving the puzzle.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
